Foto Friday - Just Two Days 'Til Christmas . . .

 . . . and all through the house

every creature was stirring, yes even the spouse!

Since we were out yesterday doing last minute shopping

 We found that the malls are still really hopping.

There were cars strung on streets hoping to get there

and some that forgot to use their manners with care.

We had filled our pockets with some of our cash

and knew it wouldn't take long before it was gone in a flash!

I was hoping to get a glimpse of that elusive St. Nick,

and as it turns out I'm just not that quick.

So I whistled and shouted and I called him by name

but all I heard back was, "Thanks just the same."

So off to the register like coursers we flew

with a cart full of stuff and a couple of coffees too.

This shopping thing is just so much work

 as the cashier looked over, he turned with a jerk

and on laying his fingers on the register keys

we knew he had done this before, he did it with ease!

He sprang into action and worked while he whistled

but we needed to dash away, as it was starting to drizzle.

And we heard him exclaim as we walked out of sight,

"Merry Christmas to you, have a good night!" 

Remember

This December,

That love weighs more than gold!

- Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Okay so maybe I'm not quite finished yet, because I got caught up with my camera?

last night I was playing and I asked my son for a paper plate and some aluminum foil, for what else,

a reflector of course! ; )

He walked into the dining room and said, "Ummm, WOW!"

Yes I had made an entire mess in my dining room all over the table, but I did have fun!

And Oh, Oh Christmas Tree, with each tiny light . . . yes, Monday I finally got the tree done!

I decided that the pre-lit 15 year old tree that was no longer lighting was going to have to wait til next year, so we brought out the smaller Charlie Brown tree. There is a reason why I love a pre-lit tree, wrapping lights is way too time consuming, but whew, it's done! The thought of turning around and taking it down in a week is haunting me!

Just about everything in my house at Christmas is adorned with some kind of bird or bird related objects - birds, nests, birdhouses - one of my fav's being the glass ornaments with clips! It makes it easy for them to travel around . . .

I don't know about you, but I do love going for a ride in the car in P.J's drinking my salted carmel mocha and taking pics of all the Christmas lights! Well, as a passenger that is - I'm always so sad when it's time for them to be put away!

As we were driving around we came across this pond with the refections of the trees and being as we were in the car and I couldn't use the tripod, I had to do my best to handhold this one at 1/6s   - yeah, that's tricky! I just had to go with the settings I had and I only got three shots before another car came along and the first two were a bit blurry. The street lights were an orange color and gave off this incredible light in the grass and in the sky. I'm kinda liking this picture!

{Shoot edit submit}

{linked with La-La's Home Daycare}

And what would Christmas be without some really big bokeh!

Now living on the Texas coast, snow is somewhat of a novelty and therefore there will be no Winter Wonderland, so that's when you just have to create your own!

One of my very favorite Christmas boxes to get out each year is that of my fairies - my Mark Roberts fairies!! He now has fairies for all occasions through the year. I think I've been collecting them for about 12 years now, although it's been about 5 years since I have bought one! Far too long...and now he even has elves and pixies, sigh!  I could just string them through my house if my budget allowed. This was my very first one, called the Anniversary fairy and one of his very early ones!! My fairies and birds get along quite nicely!

This one is part of the 12 Days of Christmas collection and because he is the smaller version (9" ornament) he doesn't come with all the accessories of the larger ones . . . He is the Four Calling Birds fairy, and it appears that his calling birds have gone calling somewhere else?

This is one of the larger fairies and I can't remember which one this is, but he loves flying from the chandelier! I met Mark Roberts a few years ago and he actually posed this one for me and signed him along with some of my other ones.  

And this is the Christmas Dreams fairy . . . 

He looks a bit too small to be carrying my Christmas dream of a new lens and from his expression I think I'll have to wait 'til next year!

And this, this is my Sugar Plum Fairy, and he takes his job very seriously!  I PROMISE I'm making cookies tomorrow, REALLY, and just in time for Santa! Of course at our house Santa does love his CHEESE . . .

Of course with all the Christmas shopping, there is one thing we need to remember:

The best Christmas present we can give and the one I think we all want in return- to love and accept one another as we are! It's free, doesn't need wrapping, it's something that multiplies when we give it away, but yet it seems to be one of the most difficult to do? Perhaps if we didn't attach so many strings we wouldn't get so tangled up in it!

So to be on the safe side, I'm not attaching any ribbons or bows on the presents this year!

From my house to yours, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!!

Love to you all,

Kim

XO


  "

Foto Friday - Changing Perspective

Frustration, after having a minor temper tantrum can go from the potential prevention of a satisfying
activity to the realization of a beautiful thing.
My frustration came from not being able to capture the detail in the close-ups I desired in the low light
of the setting sun without creating a blurry photo.
So, I diverted to my 50 mm lens which allows me to create images in low light because of its large aperture (lens opening), which also gives a narrow depth of field creating a lot of bokeh love or intentional background blur. The more wide open the lens, the more
bokeh there will be creating a dreamy and somewhat dramatic abstract photo and in some cases almost completely dissolving your subject and replacing it with colors and shapes.

My goal, especially for the first set of images is to share with you a recognizable subject in a way that you may not have viewed it before.
Something we may think of as ordinary can suddenly be seen as extraordinary just by changing our perspective.

So, you know you weren't going to get away without some interesting facts, right?

Spiders can create a variety of different silks that have different purposes and functions.

(Which is why they don't stick to their own webs)

They release their silk from spinnerets in their abdomen, and oddly enough it is actually liquid in form until it's released and it immediately takes a solid form as soon as it is exposed to air!

This happens to be an orchard spider, which is an orb weaver.

An example of how just slightly changing my position can change the affect of the image.

This one reminds me of Christmas lights. . .

With the increase of rain, I have started to see a slight increase in dragonflies but I'm sure as the mosquito

population increases so will they.

When using the 50 mm lens wide open there will usually be a sweet spot of focus as everything else blurs.

This photo made the top five for fabulous friday!

In the one below, you can see that the focus was on the dragonflies head . . .

And then in the same position, the focus was moved to its tail . . .

So what I discovered was that my frustration became an instrument in the creating of something entirely different than I had originally envisioned.

I love that I can use my camera as a tool for my

personal expression of the way I view the world - as if by chance a painting were to meet a photograph

in the middle.

And so it goes, I now have a renewed fondness for my 50 mm/f1.8 lens.

My hope is that you felt at least a little bit of the essence of what I was trying to capture

(even though insects may not be your thing)!

 I would love to hear what you see, if you change your perspective . . .

Have a great weekend everyone!

Love, Kim

XO

P.S. for more Photo Friday fun check out the hollie rogue

and here:

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli